The cousin pranks began almost immediately. Ollie was totally wiped out from the early flight here but Leona was so desperate to play with him that she kept trying all sorts of tactics to get him to wake up. The snake didn't work and ultimately she had to just wait out the nap.
The visitor fun continued as the Caldwells all came to visit from Texas. They got to stay a week and we packed as much fun into that time as we packed people into our little house. :) We went to Edmond's Beach to see sea creatures and ride the ferry. Eliza was actually at soccer camp for the first half of the week that they were here but she stayed home on Thursday to come with us on the ferry and to play at the beach. I continue to be amazed at how unimpressed kids are with the ferry. I think it's super fun and always expect them to like it and yet they never do. Sigh. The beach was a big hit, especially all the little crabs, the big crabs, the crab molts, the loose crab claws, and the other creatures, but mostly the crabs. The water was so clear that we could actually see a crab crawling along under the water from the ferry.
We also wanted to do some little hikes while they were here. We went to Snoqualmie Falls and hiked from the bottom to the top and then back down again. The kids pretty much thought they wer going to die going up, until we found the banana slug. Everybody thought the banana slug was awesome. After the morning hike they came with us to our ward pool party which was a big hit with everyone.
We also went downtown to Pike's Place Market and ate a ton of food. We of course had to take Uncle Scott to Piroshky Piroshky since it is a Ukranian bakery. Everybody enjoyed the treats that we got there. Uncle Scott also got Beecher's mac'n'cheese and cheese curds and everybody shared those. We tried to tell him that you could buy that stuff everywhere, including Costco, but on the recommendation of friends he got it downtown. I think Eliza was the only Roueche who really liked it. The highlight of going downtown was riding the Giant Ferris Wheel. The kids have had their eyes on that Ferris Wheel since we moved here and we finally rode it! Everybody like it and it was really cool to be up over the Puget Sound in a tiny ferris wheel car. We got to go around four times and since we were in two cars the kids all had fun taking turns being higher than the other car as we rotated. When we took the photo at Pike's Place we asked a random passerby, who happened to be Asian. As the grownups stepped out of the photo to retrieve the phone/camera some of the people who were with the photographer stepped in to the photo. The lady who had taken the photo explained that they were visiting from Asia (I've forgotten where exactly.) and they would like to take a photo with all of the kids. We laughed and said sure. So somewhere out there is a tourist with a photo of a "large" group of kids from America. It reminds me of the photos people take in Africa of them surrounded by children. Apparently that's a universal phenomenon. Hahaha
We also went and saw the salmon ladder at the boat locks and the troll under the bridge but everybody's favorite thing was the beach. We went to three different beaches while they were here and we had fun at all of them. At Golden Gardens we buried Junie in the sand and then laid chips on top of her to lure the seagulls to her. One clearly knew it was a trap and kept up a patrol to scare away any less savvy birds. Eventually others landed on Junie and she scared them all when after a really long time of being totally still she popped up out of the sand.
Overall it was a super fun visit and we hope that they come again.
Touching a banana slug
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